WWE RAW: The More Things Change....
Sacramento, California is apparently a city occupied by marks. The West Coast audience went wild as the billionaire family responsible for WWE's failing product were introduced one by one by one by one. 'They promised change, so that is what they must be giving us,' said the blind as they were being led off the same old familiar cliff.
I shouldn't have to explain the following. You should be smart to this. Baron Corbin is only an on-screen GM. He has no legitimate say in the product WWE is shilling, nor its stale creative direction. Corbin isn't responsible for WWE's declining ratings any more than any other Superstar on the roster. The people responsible for WWE's ratings nightmare are the four McMahon's standing in the ring above and yet, they are still hailed as heroes because you are all marks for the promise of change. As a result, you fail to ever experience legitimate change. Every time you cheer dollar signs dance before their eyes. They have you in their palms and pull your strings like a marionette. You just keep dancing.
Sure, they talk a good game. That's what billionaires do. They can even convince an unsuspecting electorate to elect them president, if you aren't careful. The McMahon's took center stage during Monday's television version of clickbait. Wrestling fans were promised big changes and instead, received more of the same and most of them cheered mindlessly and unsuspectingly, completely unaware of the fact that they had all just been swindled.
The same people that have brought the drivel week in and week out will continue to sail the sinking ship. They were honest about that. Only this time they refocused you to Baron Corbin and the company's real failures: the fans. They want you to believe that when things go wrong, it will be your fault because you're 'the authority' now, right? You flocked to that drivel like a fish to bait.
I have you to blame for last evening. It was you who decided to routinely and repeatedly interrupt key promos and matches with commercials. Shame on you. It was you that continued to give us meaningless matches with questionable finishes. How dare you? Thank you for that big Revival win last night. Perhaps you're finally listening to the new 'authority,' but you do realize that after RAW went off the air, The Revival lost their championship match to a team of quickly placed together miscasts (Bobby Roode and Chad Gable). The same writers write and the same fans cheer and vote for this undeserving brood with your hard-earned money.
It's all Baron Corbin's fault. That's what they want you to think. He is the face of this obvious decline and here come the good guys to pummel him with chairs, put him through tables, and assault the man while you all cheer. Gone is the limbo. Gone is the meaningless wrestling we've all been watching for months now because gone is Baron Corbin and his icy grip on Monday Night Raw.
We are the marks. The emperor stood before us naked to the eye and sold us on the bill of goods that he and his family were all adorned in glorious garments. They shouted 'change' and we believed them, as they delivered more of the same. They didn't even have to pry our mouths open, as they shoveled the excrement into our collective orifice. We swallowed with a smile and begged for more.
The term 'mark' comes from the carnival days. A naive visitor would pay money to participate in a carny game and the savvy carny running the game would convince the unsuspecting customer that victory was within their reach. It most certainly was, so long as they spent the right amount of money to 'win' their prize. The gamer would pull dollar after dollar out of his wallet as the carny feigned fear. 'If you win this prize, you'll break me,' the carny would lie, to prop up his lucrative scheme. After the game, the carney would act despondent, as if he had been taken for the big prize. He would then pat the gamer on the back leaving a chalk stained mark, so that all the other carnies would know that this gamer was easy pickings: a mark. We are all marks.